


Aftereffect

by pterawaters



Series: Mr. Sandman [11]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Adoption, Established Relationship, F/M, Family Fluff, Found Family, Good Parent Jim "Chief" Hopper, Good Parent Joyce Byers, Hurt/Comfort, Jonathan Byers Has Powers, Multi, Polyamory, Will Byers Has Powers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-08
Updated: 2020-01-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:40:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22165783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pterawaters/pseuds/pterawaters
Summary: The Byers make room in their lives for a new member of the family, while Jonathan does the work of recovering from his latest ordeal.
Relationships: Jonathan Byers/Steve Harrington/Nancy Wheeler, Joyce Byers/Jim "Chief" Hopper, Robin Buckley & Jonathan Byers, Will Byers & Eleven | Jane Hopper
Series: Mr. Sandman [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1527764
Comments: 23
Kudos: 88





	Aftereffect

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! It's another fluffy fic to balance out all the angst! Pretty much everything here references [Lodestar](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21769732/chapters/51941740), so I'd recommend reading at least that fic first.

It felt strange for El to watch Kali sleep. It made her seem vulnerable in a way that made El's skin crawl. So El watched over her, protecting her now that she couldn't protect herself. Wondering how Kali had ended up in that hospital under the field, El took Kali's hand and tried to read her memories. Unfortunately, she wasn't just asleep, she was sedated. Her mind was too fuzzy to read, even for El.

Beside her, a small voice asked, "How did you get so big?"

El didn't understand the girl’s question. "I'm not…" El looked over to where her dad was towering over Joyce at the table, standing behind her as they read some of the papers. "Dad is big."

"I meant…" the girl said, taking El's hand and showing her a swirling mishmash of memories and impressions. In the thoughts, El could see how she looked in the girl's mind – towering over everyone and everything. It reminded El of the shadow monster from Will's memories.

"Oh," El told her. She shrugged. "Practice. I started out smaller than you," she insisted, remembering those years when Papa pushed her to do the simplest of things, pushed her until her nose bled and her head throbbed and it still wasn't good enough. She pressed one of those memories onto the girl, sharing it with her.

She smiled and nodded. "Do you still live at that place?" The girl showed her back the lab.

El shook her head. "I live with my family now," she told the girl, letting her see the house, and understanding that she'd seen it before, in Jonathan's memories. "What's your name?"

"Jenny," she said.

"Do you have a family, Jenny?" El asked.

Jenny pushed a series of memories at El, growing up in the hospital. Unloved. It reminded El so much of her own childhood, that she got angry. Jenny snatched her hand away and El had to explain.

"No, I'm not angry at you. I'm angry at those people." She looked down at Kali again. "I'm angry at the people who did this to my sister."

Jenny nodded, but she still moved away from El shyly, going to Joyce and hanging on the arm of her chair. El watched as Joyce smiled at Jenny and reached for her, pulling Jenny into her lap and hugging her, like she knew exactly what Jenny needed.

She probably did.

It reminded El of the first time she'd met Joyce, when she'd spoken softly and called El brave and promised to be there for her, no matter how scary things got. El had gotten a lot stronger since then, a lot braver, a lot less in need of someone to hold her and love her no matter what. Still, El appreciated the fact that Joyce had welcomed El into her home, no questions asked. El appreciated the way Joyce hugged El hello, and asked about her day, and helped her with her homework, and answered her questions about all sorts of things.

Jenny needed that, too. 

She needed a home and a family and a mom.

El asked Will, _We're keeping Jenny, aren't we?_

 _I don't know,_ he replied, still paging through the papers in his pile. _I guess it's up to Mom and Dad_.

 _They kept me_.

Will smiled and looked over at her. _It's practically Byers family tradition at this point._

El laughed.

Mike turned around in his chair to face El, asking, "What is it?"

"Nothing," she told him, unwilling to explain the joke in front of all the others. When she sensed Mike starting to feel hurt, El put her hand on his shoulder. "I'll tell you later, okay?"

His hurt somewhat lessened, he nodded and said, "Okay."

~*~

"But why do you _have_ to go?" Jenny asked Steve, hanging off his arm and swinging a little when he lifted it up. "You should stay _here_."

Steve laughed, swinging her more. "My school is three hours away. Plus, Jonathan would get lonely without me there."

"You should _both_ stay," she insisted. 

"You'll still have Mom and Hop and El and Will," he told her. "Plenty of people to look after you."

Jenny let go and dropped down, frowning and looking away. Concerned, Steve sat down on the couch so he would be at her eye level. "What are you worried about?"

"You're sure they can't find me here?" Jenny said. "That man?"

"I'm sure," Steve told her. "And even if they did, they can't hurt you. El won't let them. Hop and Joyce and Will won't let them either. If anyone can protect you, it's this family."

Jenny nodded, but she climbed up onto the couch and held onto Steve's shoulder. Steve wondered why she was so attached to him, when Jonathan was the one who had gotten her most of the way out of the Execugen facility. 

"Jonthan hurts too much," she said, in response to Steve's thought.

Steve knew he was supposed to remind Jenny not to read thoughts (God knew he had plenty that weren't appropriate for her to be hearing), but her comment made him worried on Jonathan's behalf. "What do you mean? He hurts too much?"

"Just sometimes, when his bubble is thinner," she insisted. "But it hurts _a lot_. You're not so noisy."

"Thanks," Steve said. "I think."

He might have to ask Jonathan what that was all about. Steve knew he was still messed up about being taken, and being kept, but he'd been getting better over the past three weeks. Hadn't he? What was going to happen when they went back to school that afternoon? Was he going to keep getting better? Or would the pressures of school and everything make him worse?

"Now _you're_ being too noisy," Jenny told him. 

Steve poked her stomach and said, "Well then stop listening, missy!" He tickled her again.

Jenny laughed and said, "Okay, okay! I'll stop! Sorry!"

Nancy came into the room then, smiling at Steve and Jenny. "I'm all packed up. Wanna give me the keys so I can load my bags?"

"I'll help," Steve insisted. Poking Jenny again, he said, "Go hang out with El for a bit. Get her to teach you that can-crushing trick she and Will have been working on."

Jenny lit up. "Yeah!" she cried, running from the room.

Laughing, Nancy said, "She's really cute."

Steve nodded and said, "She hasn't learned how to talk back yet." He took one of Nancy's bags from her and lead the way out of the house, shivering a little at the cold, dry January air. 

After Nancy's bags were in the trunk, lined up next to Steve's, Steve caught her arm. "Jenny says Jonathan's still hurting. She says he's hurting a lot."

Nancy nodded. "Do you think he'll be okay going back to the apartment? That's where they… Where he was taken from."

"I hope so." Steve pulled her into a hug, half because he wanted the comfort and half because he wanted to share a little warmth. "Can you think of anything we could do to help him?"

"We could, I don't know…" Nancy said, looking away for a moment before looking up at him with a grin.

"What?"

Nancy said, "We could redecorate. Make it look like a totally different apartment."

"I mean, I like the idea," he told her. "But I don't have any extra money. You know, unless I'm eating PB&J for every meal for the next month."

"I have a little extra Christmas money," she said with a mischievous grin.

Steve relented. "Okay, but we have to make it look cool, alright? No flowers or rainbows or anything."

Smiling with a happy little bounce, Nancy pulled Steve down and kissed him. "Just for that, I'm gonna put a rainbow somewhere in the apartment. Maybe a unicorn, too."

Steve laughed. "You can _try_ , babe. You can try."

~*~

"Okay," Jim said, crouching down in front of Jenny next to the front door as she finished zipping up her coat. "Tell me the rules for going outside again."

Jenny nodded with a very serious look on her face. "Only talk to adults if it's an emergency. Don't use my abilities. Don't draw attention to myself."

"And?" Jim asked, raising his eyebrows at her.

"Stick close to you and don't run off," she added. 

Jim gave her a proud nod. "Good girl. Let's go."

The walk through the cold, snowy neighborhood wasn't so bad with a chattering little kid hanging on his hand. Jenny reminded him a lot of Sarah, right before she'd gotten sick. He patted the gun in the holster at his back, scanning around for any threats, but there was nothing. This was a sleepy little suburb of a sleepy little town. The only thing that gave him pause was the fact that Nancy and Murray still hadn't been able to track down the big players behind the Execugen facility Jenny came from. 

And Execugen, if it still existed, had Jonathan's full name. They had his address in Chicago. It wasn't too much of a stretch to think they could find out his mother's address if they really wanted to. So, Jim kept his eyes up. He stayed alert. He glared at anyone who even _looked_ at Jenny the wrong way. Not that there were any, but he was _ready_ to glare if need be.

Jenny deserved to skip down the street in the bright January sun. She deserved to play in the park, trampling through the snow and swinging on the swings. She deserved to run around and laugh with the other kids. Every kid deserved to be able to play.

One of the other parents, a woman wearing a big hat and a big scarf, nodded at Jim. "Gotta run them around a bit, so they don't drive us crazy at home, huh?"

"Something like that," Jim replied, his eyes in turn tracking Jenny and looking around for newcomers to the playground. 

"Will your girl be going to kindergarten in the fall?" she asked. Then she pointed to a pair of kids chasing each other around. "I'll be registering my boys this spring to start then. It would be nice if they had a friend before school started."

"We'll see," Jim told her, sighing when she gave him a curious look. Goddamn friendly neighbors. "She has some challenges. My wife and I are homeschooling her for now."

"Ah." The woman watched Jenny for a moment as she threw snow up in the air and ran under the cloud as if fell, giggling. "Well, she seems pretty happy, in any case."

"Thanks." 

Jim knew he'd feel a lot better about Jenny, and about letting her go to school, after Execugen was completely shut down. And after Owens and his people found Jenny's biological parents and got the okay for her to stay in his and Joyce’s care. He had to admit, living every day with the fear that Jenny could be taken away felt a little too much like the heartbreak he'd already been through.

At least this time he knew to hold back a little. He knew to protect his heart, and keep it safe by remembering that nothing was permanent. Especially not kids.

~*~

"What do you think?" Nancy asked when Jonathan got back to the apartment after work the first Wednesday of the semester. The apartment looked … different. 

And very … green.

There were new green curtains on the windows (over and around the blinds) and a green rug in front of the couch. The couch itself was covered in a new green fabric, and there were darker green pillows set near the arms. Even the little card table they used as a kitchen table and study desk was covered in a green tablecloth. The only thing that wasn't green was a kid's rainbow night light plugged into the wall.

"Sweetheart," Jonathan said, putting his arm around her shoulders and trying to come up with a way to say something nice. "Why did you do this?"

"I just thought," she said, gazing around, "that if it looked different enough from _before_ , you'd have an easier time relaxing and feeling at home."

Jonathan's heart clenched with love for her. He smiled at Nancy and pulled her into a hug. "Thank you for looking out for me."

"You're welcome," she replied, hugging him back. Then she laughed.

"What?" Jonathan asked her.

She let go of Jonathan and put her finger on her chin. "Now that I'm looking at it again, it's _very_ green, isn't it?"

"Kind of," he admitted.

"Too green?"

Jonathan bit his tongue, but that seemed to be answer enough, because she laughed and nodded. 

"Too green. We can probably tone it down a little bit. Somehow."

Before Jonathan could reply, Steve came through the door. He looked around as he joined them, saying, "Wow, Nancy! Look at this place! I love all the green!"

Jonathan shared an amused look with Nancy and they both started laughing.

~*~

Steve and his classmate Stef were working at the kitchen table when there was a knock on the door. Jonathan figured he was just fiddling with his camera on the couch, giving his head a little bit of a break before he went back to the reading he needed to finish, so he answered the knock. Robin stood on the other side of the door, pouting. Distraught about something.

"Hey, Robin," Jonathan said, pulling her into the hug she seemed to need. "What's going on? Steve didn't say you were coming."

"He didn't know," Robin said, hugging Jonathan back. "Can I come in?"

"Yeah, of course," he told her, guiding her through the door and closing it behind her. 

Steve was already on his feet, crying out, "Robin! What are you doing here?"

Jonathan caught a sharp, gutting burst of pain from Robin as she grabbed onto Steve.

"God, what happened?" Jonathan asked her, wracking his brain for whatever could be wrong. "Is it one of the kids?"

"No," Robin said, and Jonathan caught sight of Stef standing up, her eyes wide with surprise. "The kids are fine."

"Then what is it?" Steve asked her, but then he held up a finger. "Wait. Robin, this is my friend Stef. Stef, this is my friend, Robin."

"Uh, hey," Stef said with an awkward little wave.

Steve winced and said to Robin, "Is it an emergency, or can I get, like, ten minutes to finish this? Then I'm all yours."

"No, yeah, that's fine," Robin told him, looking more than a little miserable. 

It felt almost like she was going to explode waiting, so Jonathan took Robin's hand and pulled her into the bedroom. "Do you want to tell me what's going on?"

"It's nothing big," Robin insisted, taking a seat on the foot of the unmade bed. She looked over at Jonathan as he sat down next to her. "I've just never been dumped before."

"Oh," Jonathan said, looking down at his hands. "Sorry. I don't really have any advice I can give. That sucks, I guess?"

Robin looked at him with pinched eyebrows. "You've never been dumped?"

Jonathan shook his head. "No. Never broke up with anyone either."

"Really?" she asked, then she shrugged. "Yeah, no. I guess that makes sense. You didn't really get around in high school either, did you?"

Jonathan laughed, and he could feel himself blushing. "Not that anyone really _knew_ about, anyway."

"What do you mean?" Robin asked, a little twitch of her lips to go along with her amusement.

"Just that no one knew this thing I have with Steve and Nancy started my sophomore year," Jonathan explained. "And hasn't… stopped."

Robin nodded.

"So," Jonathan said. "Do you want to talk about what happened?"

"It was stupid," Robin said. "Cathy saw me having dinner with my boss. Since I couldn't _tell_ her he's my boss, she decided that I was cheating on her. With a guy." She stuck out her tongue in disgust.

"Ouch," Jonathan said with a wince.

"Yeah. The old superhero-secret-identity dilemma," she said with a sigh. "I need a girlfriend who knows what's going on."

"Are you staying in Hawkins much longer?" Jonathan asked. "Maybe you could be assigned somewhere bigger. I mean, somewhere with more agents. At least some of them have to be gay, right?"

Tilting her head, Robin said, "Yeah, I suppose. At dinner, my boss said he wants me to go train at Langley over the summer. Get the standard training, or whatever."

"Not too many secrets you'd have to keep from the people there, right?" Jonathan asked.

"I mean, we don't talk about the Hawkins shit, or the stuff that went down with you. Not with anyone, even other agents. It's _extremely_ classified." Robin shrugged. "But if I found a girl who just happened to know about this stuff already…"

Jonathan laughed and nodded. "If I run across one, I'll let you know."

Robin threw an arm around Jonathan's shoulders and gave him a sideways hug. "You're alright, Jonathan. I can tell why Steve likes you."

Jonathan rolled his eyes. "Thanks."

Narrowing her eyes at the bedroom door, Robin asked, "So this Stef person. What do we think of her?"

"She's nice," Jonathan insisted. "She knows about me and Steve and Nancy. I think Steve likes having a friend who knows about that, at least."

Robin pursed her lips. "Do I sense some best friend competition?"

Jonathan laughed. "I don't think so, Robin. She hasn't helped Steve fight any monsters." He nudged her shoulder with his own. "Stef hasn't helped rescue Steve's boyfriend from kidnappers, either."

"Well, good," Robin said with a sharp nod. Then she looked over at Jonathan. "How are you doing? It wasn't that long ago really."

Jonathan took a deep breath and sighed. "Some days are better than others. I'm a lot more… _aware_ of my surroundings. You know? It can be exhausting."

"But getting better? Overall?" Robin nudged at Jonathan's shoulder like he had nudged hers a moment before. 

Jonathan nodded. "Yeah. Overall, getting better."

"Good," Robin told him. "I wish I could do more to track down the guys responsible, but there's some more stuff on the Russian front that my boss has me prioritizing."

"Anything we should be worried about?"

Robin shook her head. "Run-of-the-mill classified. Barely worth looking at, honestly."

Looking at Robin, and realizing that she'd just been on a three hour drive, Jonathan asked, "Did you eat? I've got stuff for sandwiches if you want."

"Sure," Robin sid. "That would be great." As she followed Jonathan from the bedroom, she put her hands on his shoulders and said, "You know what? You give a really great pep talk. Better than Steve, even."

Jonathan laughed. "Thanks."

~*~

Steve kneeled on a pillow on the floor, his hands on Jonathan's knees. Nancy sat behind Jonathan, her arms wrapped around him and her eyes peeking out over his shoulder. 

"Okay, baby," Steve said to Jonathan. "We'll take this as slow as you want. We don't have anywhere else to be today, so don't worry about how long it takes."

Jonathan nodded, his face already flushed and his dick hard and standing up against his belly.

Steve kissed his left knee and asked Jonathan, "What do you want me to do first?"

His eyes dark as he looked down at Steve, Jonathan said, "Just your tongue. Your mouth."

"Okay," Steve agreed. He put his hands on the bed on either side of Jonathan and leaned in. Looking up as best he could, Steve made his tongue broad and gentle. He licked up Jonathan's cock from the base to the tip. "Like that?"

Biting his lip, Jonathan nodded. 

So Steve did it again.

"Shit," Jonathan breathed, squirming a little under the attention. 

Steve wet his tongue at the back of his mouth and went in again.

"Mmm," Jonathan said, his hips twitching.

Smiling at him, Steve asked, "You wanna fuck my mouth, don't you?"

Jonathan pushed his fingers into the hair atop Steve's head and groaned. "Baby, please!"

"I need some help," Steve said before dipping down and licking again. The movement made Jonathan pull his hair and Steve's cock twitched. "You want it to be my hand, or Nancy's?"

"Or yours," Nancy offered, kissing Jonathan's shoulder. 

"Yours, Steve," Jonathan said.

Steve nodded. "Okay, baby. It's just me, alright? You're awake, and you're safe."

"We love you," Nancy added.

Steve let his hand hover over Joanthan's cock until he got another nod. Gently, he grasped Joanthan's cock and tilted it down so he could get it all the way into his mouth.

"Oh!" Jonathan groaned, his fingers tightening in Steve's hair and his hips snapping up, just a little.

As he drew back, Steve sucked enough to make Jonathan shiver. He licked around the drier parts of his lips, making them nice and slippery for when he plunged down again.

Then, Steve pulled back and said, "This is normally when I'd use my hand, too. Do you want me to?"

Jonathan nodded, but he put his own hand over Steve's and said, "S-slow."

"We can go as slow as you need, Jonathan," Steve told him, squeezing gently as he stroked down Jonathan's cock, then licked the head. 

Two more strokes later, Jonathan said, "Okay, fuck, no. Faster!"

Steve let Jonathan's hand around his set the pace, and it didn't take long after that. Steve sucked down and swallowed Jonathan's come. He closed his eyes and let himself savor the taste and the weight of Joanthan's spent cock on his tongue.

Jonathan groaned and pulled on Steve's arm until he stood up and gave him a kiss. Nancy kneeled up from behind Jonathan and pulled Steve into a kiss as well.

Then she pulled harder on Steve until he was on the bed, flat on his back. "You want a ride, babe?" he asked Nancy, making her laugh.

"Yeah. Is that a problem?"

"Not for me," Steve insisted. He reached over and grasped Jonathan's wrist. "Hey, this was supposed to be about you. Got any opinions here?"

Jonathan smiled and kissed Nancy's neck. Then he whispered something to Nancy. She smiled and nodded, the way she looked at Steve almost predatory.

"Oh, fuck," Steve groaned, squirming on the bed and hoping someone was going to touch his cock sooner rather than later. "Nancy, what?"

She leaned down and kissed him, and then said, "Hold still."

"Yeah, I am," he told her, shivering when she pushed her sharp nails back over his scalp. "God, Nance!"

And then, with Jonathan's help balancing, she straddled Steve's face and lowered her pussy to his mouth.

"Oh, Jesus," he murmured before licking up and getting a heady taste of her. He did it again, using the tip of his tongue to press harder against her clit.

"Ah!" Nancy cried out, her fingers tightening in his hair.

Steve moaned in response, his cock so hard it _hurt_.

He grabbed Nancy by the hips, holding her close so he could lick and suck her the way he needed to. Oh, god, it was a relief when Jonathan dragged his hand across Steve's chest, then down. He grasped Steve's cock and pumped it infuriatingly slowly.

Steve groaned and thrust his hips, trying to get Jonathan to go faster, but then Nancy started shaking. Steve held her by the hips and worked her through it as she came, and god, his face was so wet.

Before Steve could ask her to, Nancy scooted back and straddled his hips. She pressed down on the middle of his chest and slipped her pussy over his cock. He could barely breathe, but it felt so fucking good when she rode him quick. Then quicker.

Jonathan cupped her left breast and stroked her nipple with his thumb. Then he ducked down, kissing Steve on the mouth, tasting his lips and his wet face. Nancy cried out and Steve let himself come, holding Nancy close by the hips and grinding up into her as the pleasure consumed him. 

With a sigh, Jonathan laid down next to Steve and Nancy, resting his head on Steve's shoulder. Nancy leaned forward, cuddling close to Steve with her head on his other shoulder. Steve held them both close, rubbing one hand each across their backs.

Nancy reached over and touched Jonathan's face. "How was that?" she asked him.

"A little d-difficult," he replied, his eyes closed, "but mostly really good."

"I'm glad," she said, shifting over and giving Jonathan a soft, tender kiss.

It looked nice, so Steve asked, "Can I have one of those, too?"

Nancy smiled and indulged him. Then she asked Jonathan, "Maybe next time, can I try touching you?"

Jonathan nodded. "Yeah, Nance. I'd like that."

Steve hugged them both close and kissed Jonathan's forehead. He kissed Nancy too, and let himself slip off into sleep.

~*~

When someone sat down across from Nancy in the humanities library and slammed something down on the table, Nancy couldn’t help but jump half out of her skin. When she looked up, Murray was sitting there with a wide smile on his face. The thing he had slammed down was a newspaper, the Chicago Tribune from the look of the header. 

“What’s this?” she asked him in a whisper, more considerate of the surroundings than he had been, scaring her like that. 

Pointing to one of the headlines – above the fold – Murray said, "I finally convinced that bastard, Arthur, to print your Execugen story."

_Top Illinois Holding Firm Allegedly Finances Illegal Human Experimentation_

_By Nancy Wheeler with Murray Bauman_

"What's with this headline?" Nancy asked, skimming through the article. "And the _editing_?"

"Arthur wouldn't put it in without scaling back on most of the claims," Murray said with a sigh, rolling his eyes. "Still, there's some good stuff left. Execugen is explicitly named, there's the stuff about Dr. Lahey's arrest and his kickbacks from Execugen. Plus," he grinned, "I added a line about the class action lawsuit being considered by some of the victims of that place."

"Literally _no one_ said they wanted a class action lawsuit," Nancy said, finding that line in the article and frowning at it.

"Not true!" Murray insisted. "Jim said he would consider it as Jenny's legal guardian." He grinned. "Besides, that line is more to get Execugen scrambling and on the run than anything else. Desperate people make mistakes, you know."

Nancy shrugged. "As long as they're mistakes that bring them out of hiding and don't get innocent people hurt."

Murray had the audacity to pretend to be sympathetic. "Yes, well…"

Nancy slid the paper closer to her side of the table. "Can I keep this copy? I think I might frame it." She smirked. "Put it on my desk at the student newspaper and point at it whenever my editor gets obnoxious."

With a laugh that drew frowns from several of the nearby students, Murray said, "Oh, my dear! Of course! You should definitely do that!"

"Thanks," she said, tucking the paper into her history binder. "I think I will."

~*~

“So,” Joyce said as Jenny helped her make dinner. “Is there anything in particular you want for your birthday?”

Jenny shrugged, concentrating on the lettuce she was ripping up for a moment before she answered. “I don’t know. I really liked the toys you gave me at Christmas. I guess…” She looked up at Joyce. “There’s so much out here. I don’t know how to pick.”

“Tell you what,” Joyce said, nudging Jenny with her elbow. “How about Hoppy and I take you to the toy store this weekend? We’ll look at everything they have and go from there.”

Jenny nodded excitedly. “Okay!”

Joyce smiled at her. She’d almost forgotten what it was like, having a school-aged kid in the house. Once Will had gone to middle school, she’d assumed those days were over for her. At least until one of her sons had children of his own. Having Jenny in the house with the family felt like an unexpected treat.

And if she was a little haunted in some ways, and a little too temperamental in others, well, Joyce was happy to take on those responsibilities. Her kids had all grown up a little haunted, a little temperamental. She was used to dealing with it, and finding the good things to focus on and stay positive about.

Speaking of her older children, Will came into the kitchen on his suddenly giant feet and gangly legs, giving Joyce a hug. He stole one of the carrots she was chopping and asked, “Can El and I go to the movies?”

“When?” Joyce asked him, turning to face him.

“In like,” he looked at the clock over the stove, “half an hour?”

“It’s a school night,” she told him, “so no.”

“But everyone else is going tonight!” he said, a little bit of that little-kid whine left in his voice. She was actually somewhat pleased he still had it. Jonathan had outgrown his far too early, having lived too long in the same house as his father. 

“Who is everyone else?” Joyce asked him. “And why are their mothers letting them stay out until, what? Ten? Eleven? On a school night?”

“Amber, and Greg, and Sammy, and Ben are all going because their moms aren’t lame!” Will insisted, but he was still smiling a little bit, like he was having fun with the argument. 

Joyce laughed. “Tell your friends you can go see the movie on Friday. And not before.”

From the direction of her room, Joyce heard El call out, “Ugh! _Mom_!” 

Will smiled. “She’s not happy.”

“I could tell,” Joyce told him, pulling Will down a bit so she could kiss his cheek. “Help Jenny set the table, would you, sweetheart? Dinner will be ready really soon.”

“Sure,” Will said, pulling a stack of plates out of the cabinet and handing them down to Jenny. “You got those?”

“Yep!” Jenny had just set the stack on the table when she called out, “Hoppy! Hoppy!” and ran toward the front door. 

“Miracle of miracles,” Joyce told Will with a sly little smile. “He’s home in time for dinner.”

“Want me to call El?” Will asked.

“Yes, please.”

Will continued to set the table, but El stormed into the kitchen a minute later. “I still say it’s unfair,” she said out loud, but she let Joyce give her a hug anyway. 

Ah, and suddenly Joyce realized what El’s bad mood was about. She went to the pantry and pulled down the bottle of ibuprofen. After shaking two into her hand, Joyce filled a glass with water and set them both down on the table in front of El. “You’ll feel better, sweetie.”

“Oh,” she said, laughing a little and looking up at Joyce with a smile. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Joyce pet El’s hair and kissed her forehead. “But you’re still not going to a movie on a school night.”

“What’s happening on a school night?” Jim asked as he came into the room, Jenny hanging onto him piggyback.

“Homework and lots of restful sleep,” Joyce assured him, pulling Jim close enough to kiss. Will made an exaggerated gagging noise and Jenny cried, “Ewww!” but Jim just laughed and kissed her again.

~*~

“Oh, Nancy!” Brian called as she was about to leave the newspaper offices.

Sighing, Nancy stepped back and asked, “Yes?”

“Is there any chance you’re going to be around campus this weekend? I might have an assignment for our most famous student reporter,” he said, and though his smile was playful, Nancy was not in the mood to appreciate it. 

“Sorry, I can’t,” she said. “I’ve got a family obligation this weekend.”

Brian stood up and rounded his desk as he asked, “What sort of family obligation?”

Narrowing her eyes at him, Nancy said, “Not that it’s any of your business, but my fiancé’s little sister is having a birthday party. I’m expected to be there.”

Brian gave a soft tut. “It’s really too bad. I think you would have liked this one. And here I thought since you got that blockbuster of a story in the Tribune, you might be the kind of reporter who was willing to do whatever it took for a story.”

Nancy wasn’t going to tell him about how the assignment of his that led to the Tribune story had also led to Jonathan getting kidnapped. Not to mention how it was precisely _because_ of Nancy’s ambition to get at the truth that Jonathan had been hurt. 

Crossing her arms over her chest, Nancy asked, “What’s the point of reporting the truth if we don’t have people in our lives to protect _with_ that truth?”

“You’re sure these people aren’t better off…” he waved his hand around a bit, “…held at a distance?” 

“What the fuck good would _that_ do?” Nancy asked, fully aware that Brian had no idea the people she loved had been directly involved in saving the world. Twice. 

Brian shook his head and chuckled. “The more people who feel they have ownership over you, the more restricted your life becomes. I’m just trying to look out for you, Nancy.”

“Okay,” she said, fuming and losing the will to hold herself back. “First of all, the only person who owns me, is _me_. And second of all, what are you getting out of this conversation? What’s your angle here, _Brian_? Because what it looks like is _you_ trying to put some sort of ownership stamp on _me_ , and that is just wildly inappropriate.”

He blustered around a little bit, saying, “No, I’m not trying to be inapp–”

“Brian, sweetie,” she said, giving him the most saccharine smile she was capable of, while still showing her teeth, “let's get one thing clear. You wouldn’t _survive_ me. Okay?”

Nancy stared him down until he looked away, nodding. “O–okay.”

“Great!” she said, clapping him hard on the shoulder. He flinched. “See you Monday! Bye!”

~*~

The first time he noticed the stutter, Jonathan was in his Intro to Philosophy class. The professor asked a question, and he knew the answer, so he raised his hand. When the professor called on him, Jonathan said, “It’s an example of fallacious r-r-r–” Jonathan had to stop and press his lips together before he could get the last word out. “Reasoning.”

“Yes, exactly,” said the professor, moving on with the lecture. Jonathan tried to pay attention, but he was distracted for the next five minutes by how hot his face felt. He didn’t answer any other questions for the rest of class.

It happened a few more times during the first few weeks of class, mostly when he was more tired, or when he’d just been using his abilities to check in on his people. 

The weekend before Jenny’s birthday, about three weeks into the semester, Jonathan drove home to Springfield with Steve and Nancy. Even though they got in late on Friday night, Jonathan wasn’t quite tired enough to fall asleep when Steve and Nancy did. 

He wandered into the kitchen for a glass of water, and then downstairs, where he found Will playing a game on his Atari. Sitting down next to him, Jonathan asked, “What’s this one?”

“Solaris,” Will told him, focused on the game.

“Another space battle one, huh?” Jonathan asked as he watched. 

Will shrugged. “My friend Greg has a Nintendo, which is about a million times cooler than this old Atari.”

“Ah,” Jonathan replied, sitting back and watching Will zoom around, fighting alien spaceships. After awhile, he remembered the question that had been at the back of his mind for awhile. “Hey, can I ask you something?”

“Sure,” Will said, pausing the game and looking over at him. “What is it?”

“After…” Jonathan began, having to pause and gather his thoughts. “After all that stuff you learned from El, the stuff you showed me…? After all that, has it gotten harder to, I don’t know, speak? Like out loud?”

“Oh my god,” Will said, putting the controller down. “You too? I keep forgetting words!”

“Yeah,” Jonathan nodded. “Like they’ll be right there on the tip of my tongue and I can’t get them out,” he explained. “Or I start stuttering.” He gave a little frustrated groan.

“El always has a lot of trouble speaking in class,” Will told him. “Even though she speaks just fine most of the time, especially at home.”

“There’s no pressure to speak right at home,” Jonathan insisted. 

“Yeah, I guess,” Will said with a nod. He gave Jonathan a speculative look and asked, “You think it has to do with our abilities?”

“I know I didn’t talk all that much before,” Jonathan said with a little laugh. “But I also know it used to be easier.”

“Did we give ourselves brain damage?” Will asked, laughing. 

Jonathan couldn’t help it, this was such a bizarre situation that he laughed too. “I think we actually did!”

Will laughed again, “Oh, my god!”

“It certainly hurt bad enough,” Jonathan insisted, leaning closer when Will pulled him into a giggling hug.

“Small price to pay to have you back,” Will said, his giggles dying down. 

“Agreed.” Jonathan pulled back from the hug. Then he got curious about something else he'd noticed. “Hey, can you do any of your things without getting a nosebleed?”

“Can still see the Upside Down.” Will shrugged. “I can talk to El.” _Or you_ , he said, directly into Jonathan’s brain. “What about you?”

“Reading the emotions around me,” Jonathan told him. “Finding Steve or Nancy.” _Talking to you_.

“Easy stuff,” Will said with a nod.

“Yeah,” Jonathan agreed, wondering how the hell this had become his life. “Easy stuff.”

~*~

“Happy Birthday, dear Jenny! Happy Birthday to you!” sang the family as Joyce set a cake with seven lit candles down in front of her. 

El heard the click of Jonathan’s camera, and when Jenny didn’t blow out the candles right away, she _pushed_ a memory of how to do it at her. Jenny gave El a smile and then blew out the candles in one hard breath. Everyone cheered, and then Joyce cut the cake. She gave an obscenely large piece to Jenny, watching indulgently as the little girl’s eyes went wide and she started to devour it.

As Will sat back in his chair and said, _It’s our birthday next_.

 _Sixteen_ , El agreed. _We’ll finally be able to drive Jonathan’s old car_.

 _If we can get it running_ , he told her. “Right now it won’t even start.”

“What won’t start?” Jonathan asked from beside Will.

“Your car,” Will told him just before taking another bite of cake. 

“I’ll take a look at it in the morning,” Jonathan insisted. “See if I can’t figure out what’s wrong.”

“Thanks,” Will replied. El heard it when he added in Jonathan's direction, _Dad tried but he only made things worse._

El, Will, and Jonathan all laughed, to which Joyce said, “No mind-talking at the dinner table, please.”

“Yeah,” Steve said, nudging Jonathan with his shoulder. “What’s the big joke?”

Jenny, her mouth full of chocolate cake, ratted them out. “Hoppy can’t fix cars.”

El’s dad frowned and huffed, but Joyce laughed a little, too. El leaned over and hugged Jenny, before asking, “Is it time for presents now?”

“Presents!” Jenny cried, with an excited, chocolatey smile. "Yes, please!"

El decided that having a little sister was really great, even if it did mean having to share her room.

~*~

Jim sat in the visitation room of the Dallas County Behavioral Health Hospital, trying not to show how nervous he was. Beside him, Joyce put her hand on his bouncing knee.

"It's going to be fine," Joyce insisted.

Holding his leg still, Jim looked over at her. "Is that wishful thinking, or is that something you magically _know_?"

"I don't magically _know_ things, Hop," she insisted, scoffing and rolling her eyes.

"Uh, huh," he replied, as sceptically as he could manage without angering her. He didn't mention how she constantly knew exactly what any of their children needed at any given time.

When he consciously kept his leg from bouncing, Jim instead found himself fiddling with his ring. He and Joyce had been wearing them since it became clear that selling his new identity wasn't going to work without them. So, basically since the beginning of the school year. 

Jim didn't have to be a mind reader to know that Joyce wasn't exactly happy with the situation as it was. She wore the ring he'd given her, but there were little signs. There was a _tone_. He'd been thinking an actual ceremony would probably help with the tone thing. He just had no idea how to pull something like that off, especially since he kind of wanted it to be a surprise. 

How the hell was he supposed to surprise Joyce? She knew entirely too much.

Maybe if he had El help him. That might work. 

He was thinking about something that summer, maybe, when the door to the ward opened. The first person through the door was a woman with messy, long dark hair and light brown skin. She wore loose white clothes under a big, fluffy blue sweater. A woman in a nurse's uniform followed her.

"Elena?" said the nurse, directing the other woman by her shoulders. "Your visitors are over here."

"Oh," she said, her gaze unfocused until it landed on them. She started walking toward them, her steps shuffling and slow.

Beside Jim, Joyce made a soft sound of distress. Yeah, Jim could relate. Ever since Owens' people had confirmed the identity of Jenny's birth mother, and Jim learned about her living situation, he knew seeing her was going to be hard. 

She sat down across from Joyce, giving Jim an uneasy look. Jesus Christ, what had been done to her? The only thing he could think was that at least she wasn’t in a vegetative state like Terry Ives. He slipped Joyce the packet of pictures under the table and gestured her to take the lead. 

Joyce understood. Of course she did.

Clearing her throat, Joyce said, “Hi, Elena. My name is Joyce, and this is my husband, Jim.”

Yep, he still wasn’t used to that.

“We want to talk to you about something that happened about eight years ago. You entered a treatment program outside of Chicago…”

Elena nodded, looking down at her hands. 

“And you were there for a little over a year. They released you in April of 1980.”

Elena nodded again. Then she spoke, her voice soft and unexpectedly high-pitched. “Didn’t work.”

“Do you remember any of the time you spent there?” Joyce asked gently, a perfectly sympathetic expression on her face.

“The first couple weeks,” Elena said with a nod. “They got me pretty clean. I thought I was getting better. Then…”

“Then what?” Jim asked, kicking himself when she shied away from him further. Christ, maybe he should just leave the room.

“Elena?” Joyce asked. “What happened?”

“The doctors started me on a new, experimental treatment. A new medicine.” Shaking her head, Elena rubbed her left arm with her right hand. “The next thing I remember, I was out on the street. It was spring again. A year later.”

Joyce asked, “Do you remember being pregnant?”

Elena’s eyes went wide, “I thought I’d been dreaming.”

“It wasn’t just a dream,” Joyce told her, taking the top picture from the stack and sliding it across the table. “This is Jenny. She just turned seven.”

Elena slid the photo closer, pressing her lips together tightly. When she picked it up, Jim saw her lower lip begin to tremble. "She looks a lot like my sister."

Joyce passed her a few more pictures.

Wiping away a tear, Elena asked, "Do you have any from when she was younger?"

"Sorry, no," Joyce told her. "Jenny's only been with us for three months."

"Where was she before?"

Joyce looked over to Jim, and he sighed. He supposed he could be the one to explain this. "She didn't have a very good childhood before she came to live with us. The people who kept you for a year kept her for almost seven. She grew up in a hospital."

"More like a prison," Joyce added. "She'd never been outside before we rescued her.”

“You?” Elena asked, looking at Joyce and then Jim. “You got her out?”

“It was a team effort,” Jim insisted. “But yeah. Our son was taken by the same people who kept you there. He found Jenny and was helping her escape when we found them.”

Elena smiled sadly, looking down at the pictures spread out in front of her. She pointed at the one of Jonathan helping Jenny jump over the creek at the edge of their neighborhood. Jim thought El might have taken it the last time the college kids were home from Chicago. “Is your son okay?”

Okay. Yep. Elena had just guessed correctly which son they were talking about. Jim saw where Jenny got at least some of her abilities from. They still had no idea who her father was. 

“He’s doing alright,” Joyce told Elena, touching Jonathan’s picture as well. “A lot better than three months ago.”

“How many kids do you have?” Elena asked, touching El’s picture. 

“Four, besides Jenny,” Jim told her. “But the oldest two are away at college now.”

Elena smiled, rubbing at her nose. “I grew up with a brother and a sister. It was nice, having a family like that.”

“Jenny can have a home with us,” Joyce insisted, putting her hand over Elena’s. “I understand if you’d rather she went to someone else in your family, but I think…” Joyce looked over at Jim. “I think we’re well suited to taking care of her.”

“How so?”

“She’s a lot like our other daughter,” Jim said, pointing to the picture of El sitting next to Jenny while she blew out her birthday candles. “El came from the same sort of … place.”

“They have similar challenges,” Joyce insisted. “We’ve coached El through her recovery, and now El can help us do the same for Jenny. If that sounds alright to you.”

Elena looked over the photographs again, touching Jenny’s face in each one. “She’s so happy with you.”

“Yeah,” Joyce agreed. “She is.”

Licking her lips, Elena looked up at Joyce. “Would you bring her sometimes? To visit?”

“Of course,” Jim insisted. “Yes. We can do that.”

“You have something for me to sign,” Elena said, definitely not asking a question. She knew why he and Joyce were there. Even if it was just an educated guess based on the rest of the conversation, Jim was impressed. 

God, she her talents were wasted in here. They were probably medicated away most of the time. Jim promised himself he’d look into getting Elena better, more accurate care. Maybe even transition her out of a place like this and into a situation with more freedom. 

Jim took the folder from the seat beside him and the pen from his pocket, sliding them both across the table. “You should take as much time as you need to think it over,” he told her. 

“We just want what’s best for her,” Joyce insisted. “Even if it isn’t with us.”

Jim didn’t have to be a mind reader to see how heartbroken Joyce would be if they had to let Jenny go.

“I know it’s a lot, all at once,” Jim said, meeting Elena’s eyes when she looked at him. “Finding out about her and then being asked to give her away. It’s a lot. We’ll give you some time.”

“No,” Elena said, and Jim was afraid that was their answer. 

No. They wouldn’t get to keep Jenny. Or they’d have to fight for her in court, and how could they convince a judge of their special circumstances if they couldn’t legally divulge those circumstances. Not that any judge would believe them. Perhaps not even with proof. 

But then Elena picked up the pen. She signed the documents. Jim waved the nurse over to sign as a witness. It was done. 

_This_ signed and witnessed paper a judge would believe. 

Jim looked into Elena's eyes, gave her a solemn nod, and said, "Thank you."

"Yes, thank you," Joyce said, reaching across the table and clasping Elena's hands. 

The two of them looked at each other for a moment, and then Elena nodded. "Let me know when you're going to come visit. I want to be…" She shook her head before continuing, looking down. "I want to work on getting better before then."

"We'll be in contact," Joyce told her. "We promise. You're going to get sick of us."

Elena gave a muted chuckle, like she wasn't used to laughing. Jim knew that feeling. He'd wasted too many years of his life without laughter. Things were better now.

Jim looked over at Joyce, entranced by her smile.

Yeah, things were better now.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading and commenting! Those comments really make all the work I'm putting into this series completely worth it!
> 
> The next fic (#12) will hopefully start posting this Saturday, 1/11. Like with Lodestar, I'll be posting one chapter every day for 21 days (the word count is >80k, I've got to space it out a little, lol).
> 
> You can find me on [tumblr](https://pterawaters.tumblr.com/) or [pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.social/pterawaters) if you'd like.
> 
> Thanks again for reading!


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